Preformed in February 1973 in Kentucky, recorded an album and disbanded
by December of the same year. The album was never released until 1994. Pre
were a quintet of Alfred Collinsworth (vocals, 12-string guitars), Larry
Collinsworth (electric 6- and 12-string guitars), Brian Paulson
(Hammond organ, electric and acoustic
pianos, Mini-Moog), Steve DeMoss
(bass, vibes, glockenspiel) and Dwight Dunlap (drums, percussion). Pre
is a mixed collection of styles. "The Path" is the opening
instrumental, a brief acoustic guitar duet with dashes of piano. This is
followed by "Who's Laughing Now," an acoustic guitar ballad of
love scorned. "Bowing Down" is a three and a half minute of
bowed electric guitar noodling on top of 12-string acoustics. At nearly
60 minutes of music, it is likely that some of these less than interesting
songs would have been cut from an LP release, though historical value
warrants their inclusion.

The meat of Pre's style is represented by songs
like the five minute "Water Meeting," the eleven minute
"Ascetic Eros" and the side-long "Ballet For a Blind
Man." Like many American bands in the mid-'70s, Pre shows strong
influences of Yes circa The Yes Album and
Close to the Edge.
Not only do Larry Collinsworth and Brian Paulson show influences of Steve
Howe and Rick Wakeman, respectively, but the
arrangement and development of the longer songs, divided into multiple parts, are similar
to Yes' episodic style. DeMoss and Dunlap do
not compare to Squire and Bruford,
nor does Alfred Collinsworth's somewhat forced vocal style compare to the
ease of Anderson. Paulson's keyboard
work also shows influences of Keith Emerson, but
without the bombastic presentation, so some comparisons to ELP
can be made. Additionally, Larry Collinsworth's bowed guitar adds an
eerie sheen to the mix, particularly welcome in the varied and inventive
"Ballet for a Blind Man." While few American bands tuly hold up
against their influences, Pre adds enough melodic originality to make most
of this resurrected music an interesting listen. -- Mike Taylor

Pre keyboardist Brian E. Paulson wrote to let me (and, by extension, you GEPR
readers) know that he's still around and still making music. He said, "I am still progressive but
in a more horizontal mode". I asked him if this meant he played laying down, to which he replied,
"I meant that I have incorporated more of a global music source". So does that mean "New Agey",
as his web site (see link below) might lead you to believe? Of this he says, "I know my site looks
a little 'New Agey', but it really focuses on Brain Sync and Resonance. This music was a direct
reaction to the new age crap that is out there. If you speed up some of my 'psycho-active' CD's, it
sound very progressive."

Brian wanted to let me know that Keyboard Magazine was printing a review of his
latest solo album, Quirk. The review has been published now, and they called Quirk a
"jazz fusion" disk, and compared the keyboards to Joe Zawinul (though another song is compared
to Phish, if that makes any sense at all). At any rate, you can check out this and other
Brian E. Paulson works at his web site link below.

Also, for those who have interest in Pre's sole release, Brian says, "Pre is out of pressing , but is still available thru me only as a clone CDR of my master. Interested parties can
call direct 317-896-9156." I don't think he would have given me his phone number if he didn't want
me to pass it along, so there you go! -- Fred Trafton

Congrats to historian9! this is THE best an old band suggestion since I'm a member of PA Forum ; also a big suprise for Sympho Rock guys who were looking for a holy gral like this over the years! Cheers, Historian

One of the rarest release on CD by ZNR Records (ZNR CD 5001/1992).Great sympho prog band in the same style withPentwater, Ethos, Mirthrandir, Chakra.

Doesn't appear that Chakra are actually on the archives as yet - perhaps this maybe worth looking into? Not a lot is known about them really, but the general consensus seems to be that their single 1979 self-titled release is a decent slab of Yes/Rush inspired prog.

That wonderful resource for all things prog, gepr, have only one line about them:

"Chakra [USA] Chakra (79) Pleasant symphonic prog from a Southern California band who only ever put out this one album. Very similar in style to the Syn-Phonic bands, and ought to appeal to fans of Lift, Pentwater, etc. -- Mike Ohman"

This guy Jim Zabel: http://homepage.mac.com/jzabel57/C1569005882/E1396042382/index.html, who plays (or played - it's quite an old post...) with a band called ZED57, actually went to school with the members of Chakra, and the email address given for him is [email protected], so he might be able to provide the full bio for you if the band is accepted, but for now let's just say they were a complex, synth-heavy US 5-piece (though one guy only sang) progressive rock band from Orange County, CA. whose lyrics had a Christian theme.

GPR reissued the album as a CD (777 copies only, ref GDR 2090502841094, supplied in an LP sleeve) and limited edition vinyl (LP ref - GDR0701, & only 400 of these were pressed as far as I know). It originally came out in the U.S. as a privately released album on the BrotherStudio label in 1979, the LP numbering was A1-4 and B1-4.

Maybe this post ought to be moved to its own thread in this forum, I don't know, but since I only learned of the existence of Chakra through GentleGiant's post in the first place I thought I'd start off with it here.

I'll p.m. this info to Iván anyway, since it seems likely that his team will want the first stab at them.

Edit: The CD reissue of the album by GPR referred to above was in 2007.

Well that was a quick inclusion! And my first successful suggestion too.

One question though, is it okay to put some or even just one sample like youtube ones in the first post to on the video section of their page? When I click on adding video, it just gives me internal server error, I don't know if it's because it's a new band page or something else is wrong on my end.

Well that was a quick inclusion! And my first successful suggestion too.

One question though, is it okay to put some or even just one sample like youtube ones in the first post to on the video section of their page? When I click on adding video, it just gives me internal server error, I don't know if it's because it's a new band page or something else is wrong on my end.

LOL! Same thing happens to me every time!! - I've made about 30 attempts since June this year, and every one resulted in the same error message! I posted about this a couple of times in the 'Report Bugs' section fo the forum to try and get some help with the matter, as I'm convinced it is something to do with the way our particular accounts are configured rather than a general software problem. Lots of folks add videos to the site without any issues, and I did too up until June, when I made a change to my account on here. I'm sure there is an unintentional block of some sort in place. No solution has been forthcoming as yet though.

I can't listen to the music now but if you want I can split the thread, David.

It may not actually be necessary Alex.

I pm'd the whole post, exactly as it appears above, to Iván. I would imagine he will either get his team to evaluate them based on the samples included (the whole album, in fact) or else he will suggest an alternative team to move the suggestion to if he decides the band are not symphonic enough.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot create polls in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum